Commonwealth and state governments must develop policies relating to children’s experience of domestic violence, and focus on the little-known aspects of sibling violence and violence experienced during pregnancy, a new report by the Human Rights Commission has said.
The children’s commissioner, Megan Mitchell – who wrote the report, which was tabled in Parliament on Monday – said children’s experience of domestic violence was often under-appreciated.
“The needs of children affected by family and domestic violence have been somewhat incidental or peripheral to the public policy approach to family and domestic violence, and increasingly folded into child protection responses,” the report said. “It is my view that children’s experiences of family and domestic violence must be understood in their own right and not just as part of an adult situation.”
Children who live with domestic violence are often the “silent victims”, the report said.
“Sibling violence, and family and domestic violence experienced by female children aged 15 to 17 years, are areas where targeted research is especially needed,” Mitchell said in a statement.
The report also highlighted a lack of understanding of the prevalence of violence during pregnancy, or how it affected children later in life, noting that “no jurisdiction collects information on family and domestic violence as part of its perinatal data collection”.
Mitchell said she would personally monitor progress in that area.
“Future screening will enable women experiencing family and domestic violence [during pregnancy] to have an increased chance of receiving support,” she said. “I will monitor progress for the screening of family and domestic violence during pregnancy.”
The current framework for looking after children in domestic violence situations is not working, she said.
“Overall there is no coherent public policy approach to children affected by family and domestic violence. This results in uncoordinated and poorly directed responses to children who experience family and domestic violence,” the report said. “Children’s experiences of family and domestic violence must be understood in their own right and not just as part of an adult situation.”
Respectful relationships programs need to be introduced when children are in primary school, rather than the current approach which sees the majority introduced in high school, the report recommended.
Much of the $100m announced by the federal government in September to tackle domestic violence focuses on punishing perpetrators and supporting survivors, though $5m has been set aside for online resources for young people on the Safer Schools website.
Child protection was also the focus of a second Human Rights Commission report, written by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander social justice commissioner, Mick Gooda.
Gooda called for urgent action to curb the rates of Indigenous children in child protection, noting that they were nine times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children.
“Our children are our most precious resource and their innocence and their right to be safe, healthy and free from violence must be protected at all costs,” Gooda said. “We need to empower and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples to break free from the cycle that brings them into contact with child protection authorities in the first place.”
The report, also tabled in Parliament on Monday, called for state and territory children’s commissioners to oversee child protection reforms for Indigenous minors in their jurisdictions. It also called for the establishment of a national institute of Indigenous excellence in child wellbeing to coordinate research into Indigenous child protection.
